Brock Purdy, Trey Lance, and Sam Darnold, “Franchise-Like Quarterbacks”, says 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

There’s an old football saying that goes something like, “If you say you have more than one starting quarterback, you really don’t have any,” which is sometimes credited to the renowned John Madden.

This notion doesn’t seem to be shared by Kyle Shanahan. The head coach of the San Francisco 49ers said on Thursday that he believes Sam Darnold, Brock Purdy, and Trey Lance are all capable of serving as a team’s captain:

“I do believe we have three quarterbacks who are talent-wise capable of being franchise-like quarterbacks.”

According to David Lombardi of The Athletic, Shanahan stated at the Dwight Clark Legacy Series game.

Brock has accomplished that in eight games. We also have two more players on our squad that we are confident can accomplish the same thing.

However, only one man can start for the 49ers in Week 1 this year, and all indications are that Purdy will be that player.

This spring, Shanahan and 49ers GM John Lynch effectively declared Purdy the 2023 starter while acknowledging they fielded trade requests for Lance.

Purdy “earned that right to be the guy” after leading the 49ers to the NFC championship game with a 7-1 record this past season, according to Lynch, who also echoed Shanahan’s earlier this offseason statement that Purdy will “be the starter going into [the season]”.

After a turbulent three-year tenure with the New York Jets, Darnold spent the past two years as the on-again, off-again starter for the Carolina Panthers before being signed by San Francisco in free agency.
Shanahan will not definitely rule out Lance or Darnold as the team’s starting quarterback in the case for them.

He asserted that if Lance hadn’t broken his finger in 2021 and his ankle in 2022, he would have “gotten to a level where he would’ve done similar stuff” to what Purdy did in 2022. Lance missed a season after the 49ers selected him third overall in 2021.

“We did anticipate Trey Lance [to be the man for a while], and I believe he still has it in him. Additionally, you don’t anticipate the final choice in the draft to enter and perform at that level, according to Shanahan.

He missed the chance, and Brock stepped in and took it. Although I firmly believe Trey is capable of doing it, Brock has already done it, which is excellent for us to have.

Shanahan stated that he continues to view Darnold as a talented former third-round choice from the 2018 draft. Oddly enough, with 55 career starts under his belt, Darnold has the most experience of the group as a quarterback.

There is no reason to believe otherwise, according to your observation of his entire career, Shanahan said. We are happy to have him here because he hasn’t always been in the best situations.

What makes Shanahan say all of this, then? He might want three quarterbacks under the age of 26 to compete head-to-head this offseason.

Since the 49ers acquired Jimmy Garoppolo through a trade in 2017 and named Lance the team’s Week 1 starter in 2022, the 49ers have not had one during Shanahan’s time as head coach.

Or perhaps Shanahan made his remarks in case Purdy’s recovery from UCL surgery wasn’t complete by Week 1. While Shanahan stated that he believes Purdy will be prepared for training camp, it won’t be possible to be certain until he dons his pads and starts working out.

A different hypothesis is that Shanahan is merely attempting to increase Lance’s trade worth prior to the 2023 season in order to persuade a team to make an offer for him.

In either case, the 49ers will need to make one of the year’s most crucial decisions this offseason. In addition to being the NFC West favorite (-175, according BetMGM), San Francisco is also tied for the third-best chances to win the Super Bowl (+900) and has the second-best odds (+300) to win the NFC.

There is a lot riding on Shanahan’s choice of quarterback, and he hasn’t totally shown his hand just yet.

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